Effects of age on spatial information processing: relationship to senescent changes in brain noradrenergic and opioid systems
A major focus in current research on aging is the identification of senescent changes in cognitive function in laboratory animals. This literature indicates that the processing of spatial information may be particularly impaired during senescence. The degree to which nonspecific factors (eg. sensory of motor deficits) contribute to behavioral impairments in aging, however, remains largely uninvestigated. In addition, few studies have attempted to identify senescent changes in brain structure and function which might underlie the behavioral manifestations of aging. In the behavioral experiments reported here, the authors tested young, middle-age, and senescent rates in several versions of a spatial memory task, the Morris water maze. The results of these investigations demonstrate that aged rats are significantly impaired in the Morris task compared to young or middle-age animals. In addition, these studies indicate that age-related deficits in the water maze reflect a specific dysfunction in the ability of older animals to effectively process spatial information rather than a senescent decline in sensory or motor functions. Using the subjects from the behavioral studies, additional investigations assessed whether age-dependent changes in neurochemical and neuroanatomical systems which are known to mediate spatial learning in young animals were related to the behavioral deficits exhibited by aged rats. The results of these studies demonstrate that a portion of senescent animals exhibit significant increases in lateral septal /sup 3/H-desmethylimipramine binding and decrease in /sup 3/H-naloxone binding in this same region as assessed by quantitative in vitro autoradiography.
- Research Organization:
- North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6897729
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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BRAIN
AUTORADIOGRAPHY
PHYSIOLOGY
LEARNING
AGE DEPENDENCE
BEHAVIOR
IMIPRAMINE
RATS
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
AMINES
ANIMALS
ANTIDEPRESSANTS
BODY
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM AGENTS
DRUGS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
MAMMALS
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ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
ORGANS
PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS
RODENTS
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551001* - Physiological Systems- Tracer Techniques